The invention finds particular applications in the pharmaceutical and healthcare fields, especially to perform a quality control process of capsules, caplets, pills and others as three-dimensional objects. In such fields, a two-dimensional image of the external surface may be used to inspect printing, surface condition, shape, colour, dimension or any visible feature, especially to detect the presence of a defect or physical damage. The two-dimensional image may generally be used to reveal any suitable information that can result from an observation of the external surface, such as the length of a capsule. Applications of the invention are, however, not limited to the above mentioned applications in the pharmaceutical and healthcare fields.
The invention is more specifically directed to an apparatus comprising:    displacing means for supporting and displacing the object along a path;    a single camera for capturing images of portions of the object surface;    rotating means for rotating the object about one of its axes along a section of said path, so as to expose successive portions of the object surface to said single camera, whereby the single camera is able to capture images corresponding to successive exposed portions of the object surface.
Such an apparatus is known from EP-A-1 112 473.